Necessary Deception
by Anna-Morgause
Summary: Lying as always been a part of Ryder Stone's life, but when he gets reaped for the 43rd Hunger Games, he's going to have some explaining to do. For example, why is he the female tribute?


**Necessary Deception**

**by Anna-Morgause  
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**Description:** Lying as always been a part of Ryder Stone's life, but when he gets reaped for the 43rd Hunger Games, he's going to have some explaining to do. For example, why is_ he_ the _female_ tribute?

**Chapter 1**

"Time to get up!"

The door to the one bedroom in my house slams open. I groan as my best friend, Dash, walks over to the bed I share with my Aunt Mara, who's already up and getting things ready for after the Reaping ceremony. It'd be improper for a normal boy my age to share a bed with a woman, even if we are related but I'm not normal and, despite what the whole world thinks, I'm not a boy.

My parents got married young. 16-year-old, two whole years of reaping left young. My mom went into labor with me after her best friend got reaped for the 35th Games. She was only five and half months pregnant. It was a miracle I survived, but she didn't make it and it drove my dad crazy. He started drinking and stealing drugs because he just couldn't deal with her death and, apparently, he couldn't deal with the fact that I was a girl. My mom had wanted a boy _so much_ and she was so excited that he convinced himself that I was the boy she wanted and gave me the name she picked out: Ryder. Aunt Mara raised me as a boy to keep him from breaking even more and, when I was old enough to understand, I agreed to pretend. No one knows that I'm biologically female but me and Aunt Mara. Not even Dash.

"Don't you have somewhere to be?" I roll over and snuggle into my blanket. It's soft and plush – a gift from Dash, paid for with is new money. He won the 41st Hunger Games and now he has more than he knows what to do with, so I end up getting random presents. I don't complain and I think it makes him feel better. "I'm sure your fancy prep team is waiting to make you pretty."

Dash rolls his eyes and pulls away my blanket. I whimper and curl up into a ball. It makes me a bit warmer and it has the added benefit of covering my chest. I don't have a lot up there, but when I don't have my bindings done, it's noticeable. Especially when I'm just in my pajamas. "I told you last year, they don't leave the Capitol except for the Victory Tour."

"Whatever." I want Dash to leave so I can go back to sleep. Reaping Day is one of the few days a year I get to sleep in and I was having such a nice dream. "Grimes must be looking for you. No way he's letting Vanna or Christophe speak ever again."

Grimes Hartigan is the escort for District 6. He's tall and thin and his skin is tinted purple, but he's nowhere near as disgusting as most of the stylists I've seen on TV. I thought he'd be promoted to a better district after Dash won, but he wasn't. Maybe he thinks Dash'll be able to get him some more victors. After all, he practically won on his own. Vanna's high on morphling half the time and Christophe is high_ all _the time. This year, they told Christophe that he doesn't have to come to the Capitol to mentor the tributes. Dash is taking his place permanently.

Dash pulls me out of bed and I shoo him out of the room so I can get dressed.

"You're a real prude, you know that, Ry?" he says as I push him towards the door. I guess it wouldn't matter if he sees me naked or in my underwear if I really was who I say I am, but I'm not so it does.

"Yeah, yeah, I know." I close the door and lock it the moment he's out of the doorway. "I know."

I get dressed in my nicest clothes – a white, pressed dress shirt, dark gray pants and dress shoes – and Dash and I go over to his house because it's a much nicer place to wait for the reaping than mine. For the next two hours we talk about anything but the fact that he's going to have to mentor two people who'll probably be dead within a few week or how there are 28 slips of paper with my name written on them in a glass bowl on a stage in the town center. We stop talking when it's time to go and walk to the town center together.

"Good luck." He says like he does every year once we get to where the rest of the boys in our year are. Except, this year, like last year, he'll be taking his place on the stage instead of staying here with me.

"You, too."

The ceremony begins and a message from President Snow plays. I don't pay attention to any of it, not what the Mayor reads or what Grimes says, not even Dash's speech. I don't pay attention at all until Grimes' hand goes into the girl's ball. This is the only part anyone cares about. He finds a piece of paper he likes, pulls it out and reads from it.

"_Ryder Stone_."

There are gasps, something that usually only happens when people younger than 15 are reaped. My mind races. Who's young enough to warrant shock? Whose name is Ryd-

_Oh._

It's me. I'm the one that was reaped. It's me who's going to die, not some 13-year-old girl. I'm 18. I'm supposed to be celebrating that I got through my last reaping tonight. It's a shame that I probably won't get to taste Aunt Mara's cake again. It's my favorite.

After I get over the shock of hearing my name, I begin to hear the murmurs of confusion. Why'd they call his name? Girls are supposed to be reaped first. What's going on? Even the peacekeepers don't know whether or not to take me up to the stage. They all know me, they all know my father. I can practically hear them thinking he has to be a boy; there must have been a mistake. Everyone switches back and forth between staring at me and looking at Grimes, who seems even more lost than the rest of us. I don't think he knows my name, but by now, I think he recognizes me as Dash's best friend. Dash's _male _best friend. Unlike everyone else, Dash's eyes never leave me. He looks so upset and confused. I wish I could have told him before.

I honestly never thought about what would happen if I got reaped; it was just something so horrible, I never wanted to consider it. And besides, my name had been on so many slips of paper in that glass bowl over the years and Grimes had never picked it. What were the odds? High this year, I guess. Still, I got nervous for nothing when his hand went into the boy's bowl every year. Turns out, I'd already been safe. I wonder how the Capitol knows that I'm a girl.

Sometimes, it scares me how much they know.

I feel a hand on my arm and look up. It's Ralphie, a peacekeeper who's just a few years older than me. Sometimes, he helps me drag Papa home. Will he still drag Papa home after I die?

"Ryder, I… what do you want to do?"

He's not going to force me; I can see it in his eyes. I look at the other peacekeepers. None of them are going to force me. I wonder if I can get away with not going. Will they think it's a mistake and just pick another name or will they make me the male tribute? I think about what the Capitol might do to Papa and Aunt Mara and I realize that it's not worth it to find out.

"He called my name, didn't he?"

Ralphie nods and the other guys make room for him to lead me up to the stage. We get there, but before he hands me off to Grimes, Ralphie stops me.

"Are you really a girl?"

This isn't how I thought people would find out. I'd always assumed that there'd be a time I wouldn't be able to save my father from himself and he'd die and maybe I'd get a chance at living a normal life. Now, even if I don't die, nothing will ever be normal again. "Yes, I am."

I know Dash is close enough to hear me because I hear him gasp. I hope that I'll get the chance to explain everything to him. I hope he'll forgive me. I walk up the steps and Grimes leads me over to the spot designated for the female tribute. He looks flustered. That never happens.

"Well," Grimes glances back at Dash – probably looking for answers he can't give – before smoothing down his blue hair and composing himself. "Now that that's settled, let's find out who your other tribute is." I notice that Grimes doesn't say 'the male tribute' like he usually does.

Carson Willis, a 14-year-old I've only seen a couple times before, is reaped and brought up without incident. There are no gasps for him; I've already shocked everyone more than the death of a child. Kids dying? That's normal, but a girl living her whole life as a boy only to have her secret come out when she's reaped? Maybe the Capitol people will appreciate the drama of it and I can get some sponsors and at least have a chance of not dying immediately.

The ceremony continues and I know I should be trying to figure out a strategy, thinking of ways to survive, but all I can think about is how angry Dash looks right now. When the Mayor finishes reading the Treaty of Treasons, I go through motions I've only seen other people do before. Carson and I shake hands and Ralphie reappears at my side; he and the other peacekeepers lead us to the Justice Building. I've only been in the Justice Building once before: two years ago, when I said goodbye to Dash after he was reaped. Maybe I should have told him then. I can't help but laugh when Ralphie takes me to the exact same room where they took Dash.

I sit on a chair and, while I wait for Papa and Aunt Mara to come, I think about how different it feels to be the one being said goodbye to. Then, I was emotional, but now I feel almost numb. The door opens, but it's not Papa or Aunt Mara who enters.

Eden Hathaway, a pretty redheaded girl in my year I've been friends with since before I can remember, walks over to me. I stand up to greet her, but then she does something completely unexpected.

She slaps me.


End file.
